The Unlucky One
by PrettyFacesWithBrokenEyes
Summary: This is something I wrote for my 8th Grade English project. The assignment was to write a parable about someone else who finds the pearl after Kino, so this is the story I wrote. Please read and I hope you enjoy!


There are things about the world that a man does not quite understand. Why the sky is blue, why the stars shine only at night a man does not know for sure. And it is a curiosity that some are driven to figure out. Others, however, do not know and are content with it. Those like Jaynar.

The sun had barely crept over the hills as Jaynar shoved his sturdy, wooden boat into the blue, crystal ocean. Fish appeared in and out of the calm, smooth waves. Only yesterday had the Great Hurricane swept over the land, and Jaynar could make out the damage from the sea he was floating in. Brush houses were blown away and trees had crashed to the shores. The small Indian village in which Jaynar and his wife resided was in a hopeless state.

Therefore, men and young men alike had been sent out to scour the ocean floor for pearls in order to repair their homeland. Usually, Jaynar waited until noon or so before fishing for pearls or sea life, but his dedication to his people was far too important.

"Brother, why do you just sit there?" a voice asked from behind him.

"I'm waiting for a current; my arms grow tired of rowing," Jaynar answered his brother's question.

"This is important, Jaynar. We must rebuild, and fast."

"I know." And with that, Jaynar rowed ahead of his blood brother, Jose.

The wind brought the smell of the women cooking breakfast on the beach for their husbands' famished bellies. Jaynar breathed in as much air as his experienced lungs could contain as he came up out of the water for the seventeenth time so far that day. He scanned his collecting bag and realized he had found nothing at all. "Nothing," he said to his brother who had just reappeared.

"My sack is empty too, my brother," Jose dejectedly admitted. "The storm moved the water a great bit."

"So many oysters and pearls were swept away?" Jaynar inquired. His brother nodded in confirmation, which brought a frown to Jaynar's dripping wet face.

"I'm going to row to the shore where my family is," Jose informed. "You are going to keep diving?"

"Yes."

"Then good luck to you, brother," the elder of the two men said as he began to sail inland.

Jaynar huffed in frustration and prepared to go under again. With a rock tied to him, he let himself descend into the navy blue abyss. Once at the bottom where many open oysters lay, Jaynar frantically turned over shells and dug in the mounds of sand thoroughly, searching for something, anything that might be of value.

Wishing luck upon someone is a blind thing to do, because you never know if it will even mean anything. Sometimes it is said only to get someone's hopes up or just to have something to say to a distraught individual. And Jose did not expect his half-hearted wish to do anything at all. For his little brother had never been lucky. Always losing races as a child, and never being given a good amount for his pearls when he sold them, Jaynar was just… unlucky.

But sometimes luck can be turned around, and the rules of a game can change. One who has lost too many bets to count and has been rejected by the stars time and time again could suddenly become lucky. And the clouds were in Jaynar's favor that day, for he ran breathless towards his wife and brother, not stopping or slowing his pace until he arrived at their site.

"What is it, Jaynar?" Mia, Jaynar's wife, asked with frightened eyes.

"Brother?" Jose laid a tan hand on his sibling's shoulder. "Is everything alright?"

"Y-yes," Jaynar stuttered. "E-everything is alright, more than alright." His eyes began to light up. "Everything is wonderful!"

"What causes such an excitement in you?" Jose's wife asked.

"This." Jaynar uncovered the pearl and showed it to his awestruck friends and family. Jaws dropped at the sight of this beauty, this magnificent wonder.

"It… it is a pearl…" Mia whispered.

"Indeed," Jaynar beamed. "It is a pearl that can bring us great wealth."

"And," the older brother cut in. "it can help repair our village." The others nodded in agreement while Jaynar stared in confusion. Finally, he snapped out of his trance and spoke again.

"Of course."

"Good, Jaynar. For once you are lucky," Jose chuckled and smiled proudly at him.

"I only wish there had not been a hurricane that destroyed our homes. Then, I could use this pearl to give us what we need, a better, richer lifestyle."

"Yes, well," Jose sighed. "It is clearly not meant to be. We are not that lucky."

"But what if…" Jaynar's eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at his feet in thought. "What if this is our chance?"

"What are you saying?" Mia inquired cluelessly.

"I am saying that we could use the pearl for ourselves. We could hide it before people hear about it. No one would ever know and it would be ours… _our_ pearl."

"Brother, do not be greedy," Jose scolded.

"I am not!" the younger man objected loudly. "I only want the best for my family."

"I know you do," Jose calmly said. "But those are foolish and ignorant choices. You cannot hide this pearl. Our people need it."

"But _I_ need it. And I found it," Jaynar insisted. "It's _mine_."

"Brother, stop while you're ahead. Please."

"Why can I not use my own finding, my own luck, for the good of my family?" Jaynar questioned furiously. He turned to Mia. "My wife, can you not understand what this could do for us? We could be like _them_, the white folks. We could live like them!"

"Jaynar," the young woman spoke to her husband softly. "It is too risky. I am afraid for your sanity."

"My sanity?" the man scoffed. "I am perfectly sane, I tell you. Why can you people not understand?"

"Jayn-"

"Stop it! Stop it, you all!" Jaynar screamed. "I am a man. I will choose what I shall do with my pearl. I will."

And so Jaynar's brother and wife and sister-in-law silenced themselves in fear that Jaynar would explode in rage. Jaynar clamped his fingers around the luminous pearl and stalked off, proud of himself for getting his point across. For his own plans seemed good at the time. In the heat of the moment, he believed he was doing what was truly right. That's what he told himself as he dug up a little hole by the remains of his brush house and carefully concealed his little treasure.

Mia lay down next to her husband that night to see an evil grin on his face as he was sleeping and dreaming. It was a grin that could only imply that he did not really have good intentions. She knew what she had to do. She knew she had to get rid of that devil inside of him. She had to destroy the pearl.

Now Mia knew it would do no good to simply toss it back into the ocean. Jaynar, of course, would just punish her and retrieve the pearl again. Even if the pearl became hidden in the sea floor, Mia knew that her husband would not rest until it is found again. She had seen the fire in his eyes, and she knew it would soon engulf them before they even had the chance to scream.

So she stood up on the mat her husband was laying on, smoothed out her dress, and ever so silently slipped off into the night with the pearl enclosed in her small hands. Once a good distance from Jaynar, and any other civilians for that matter, she began running towards the woods. Where exactly she was going, she did not really know. Still, she had to go.

And only when she had reached the center of the deep forest did she realize just how terrifying the night was. Trees appeared to be black and evil, and the ground played tricks on Mia's eyes as rodents scurried about. She spun in circles, frantically searching for the way in which she had come. Her now sweaty palms grasped the pearl still, but she was almost driven to the point of dropping it right there in the woods and shouting for help. She knew better though, because once someone found her, questions would be asked almost instantaneously. No, she had to carry out her mission, and fast.

A twig snapped from somewhere around her. A whisper crept to her ear and sent chills through her body. The vulnerable girl whimpered and took a step back – into a person. A large, burly man slapped his hand across Mia's mouth, preventing her from making any audible noises. She tried to find a weakness, kicking him and flailing her arms around, but nothing worked.

"Quiet, missy, and just give us the pearl!" her captor hissed. Mia watched as another hefty man with a bandana on his face appeared in front of her.

"Yeah," he agreed with his partner. "Hand it over." With truly horrified eyes, Mia shook her head. "Well, then… I suppose we don't need you alive," the bandana man explained. "Kill her." Mia shook her body and desperately tried to escape from the man's grip.

"Leave her alone," a low voice came from the woods. Mia turned with the two men to see none other than Jaynar himself.

"We want the pearl," the man holding Mia demanded.

"You're not getting it," Jaynar said while pulling out his knife. "Let her go." The bandana man shook his head in opposition.

"We will have it, one way or another." Anger snapped in Jaynar and he lunged forward, attacking the previous speaker. The person holding Mia suddenly let go and she fled a few feet away from the scene. Both antagonists attacked Jaynar, but the bandana man didn't have long to live now, for his throat bled a crimson substance. The remaining criminal looked at his dead partner and then at Jaynar in pure terror.

"Run," Jaynar growled. And with that, the man was high tailing it out of those woods. Jaynar immediately went to his wife. "Mia…"

"Jaynar, I…" she choked out.

"Shush," Jaynar put a finger to her lips. "You are okay?"

"Yes, but the pearl… I took it from you," she admitted shamefully.

"It is alright, my wife," Jaynar said softly. "I had a vision, a dream that it was evil… that this would happen. I am just glad I found you before it was too late…"

"Oh, Jaynar," Mia blubbered. "I am glad."

"I am too," Jaynar said while embracing his young wife.

So this time, evil did not take its toll on the "lucky" finders of the pearl. This time, the pearl was figured out before it was too late, before the lucky ones became the unlucky ones.


End file.
